The Farmer Who Passed The Chance To Be A Hero X

All of us tried a bite of Cygar's and aunt Terry's ice cream. Our eyelids expanded and our tastebuds sang merrily in our enclosed mouths. Cygar had frozen it just to the perfect consistency like a soft liquid but just enough integrity to be considered a solid. None of us ever had anything quite like it. Sure, in the winter time we froze water outside and tried our hand at making it on the farm, but that felt like shaved ice compared to this.

"This is good, Cygar, darn good. I'm real impressed with your freeze-makin' abilities."

Cygar was grinning so tightly his dimples arrived. "Well thank you all. I'm joyous that all of you have appreciated it so far."

"Oh yeah, we appreciate it all right. Our monies will also appreciate it, come this weekend at the market, we're gonna clean house. People are going to be coming to our slot like beavers to a dam!" uncle Howie beamed.

"Hey, the sun is starting to set, the golden hour is comin', we should really head over to Lorraine's house and meet up with her and her sister. Cygar, you should come with me," I said.

"Sure, I have nowhere to be, by the way, what's the golden hour?"

I yanked him over to the window and pointed outside. "You see how when the sun starts falling down the sky, the whole land has like this golden, amber-y kind of filter? That means the sun will be setting soon and then it's night time. I love the golden hour, it really showcases the beauty, y'know?"

"Uh, sure. This whole day has been beautiful outside. I'm amazed it can get more breathtaking."

"Oh yeah, you better believe it. C'mon, let's go meet up with Lorraine and her sister."

The two of us said goodbye to my family and we started walking north, the opposite way of where we walked earlier when we saw Old Man Walt. We also took Bozo out to join us since he hadn't gone out much during the day. It was a 20 minute hike up the dirt road to get to Lorraine's house, I was shaking and grinning at the thought of Cygar meeting Lorraine's sister.

"Much like me, Cygar, Lorraine and her sister Zoe don't live with their biological parents. In fact, they ain't even related even though they're sisters," I said.

"Huh, that's a little strange. Why are they sisters then? I'm confused."

"You and me both, but maybe you might have some information to give."

"What makes you say that?"

"You'll see," I winked and smirked at him. "We are coming up on the house now, put on your smile, they're good people," I nudged Cygar, he gazed at the ground with a slight downward bend of his lips, he looked deep in thought about somethin'.

We stepped up to the porch and I knocked on the door, it immediately swung open as if we were about to be ambushed. Standing in the doorway was Lorraine's older sister. Tall and blonde with wiry hair.

"She's not here, sorry," Zoe said sarcastically, stifling a grin.

"That's okay, I have—"

"Wait a second, it's 'okay' that your girlfriend's not here? Do you not care about her anymore?"

I started chortling and I backed away with my hands up. "Zoe, c'mon, don't give me a hard time about this."

At this point Bozo interrupted the conversation by sticking his head in between Zoe and I in the doorway.

"Oh my goodness! It's Bozo! Yer' a good boy', yer' a good boy," Zoe kept repeating as she started to pet him with rapid grazes of her hand. "Bozo can come inside, you can stay out here." then she finally looked to my right and saw that Cygar was standing to my side with his head lowered bashfully. Her eyes grew larger and she perked her head up. "Uh, hey-uh, you didn't tell me you had a friend here?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you, I made a new friend, his name is Cygar. I wanted you two to meet," I said.

She opened the door wider and stepped further out to the porch. Cygar lifted his hand unusually high yet again, but Zoe humored him and shook it.

"It's nice to meet you," Cygar said.

"Pleasure's all mine," Zoe returned with a delicate, papery voice.

"People keep telling me that my name sounds like some object called a cigar, but you're just like Jimmy, you didn't make a note of it or laugh," Cygar had two rosy swirls appear on his cheeks.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Y'all look like you swept each other off y'alls feet."

Zoe pierced me with a glare. "For that, I think I ought to sweep you off your feet."

"Oh, I was just kiddin' around, please don't do that Zoe, you know I don't like—"

But it was too late. She interrupted me and her eyes glowed green for a moment and a gust of wind swept me off my feet and onto my back. A loud thud hit the wooden porch.

"The Hell is goin' on out there?!" a voice shouted from inside the house.

"Nothin', dad, Jimmy is over and he's just being an idiot," Zoe hollered back.

Bozo came up and attacked me with a couple of licks as I was on the ground. I couldn't help but crack up, for each kiss tickled me. I stood up and dusted off my back and bottom. Cygar's mouth was ajar and eyes open so wide they almost fell out of his sockets.

"W-Wait, did you do that?" Cygar asked, looking at me and then Zoe again. "Did you make him f-fall? How did you do that? What happened? I saw your eyes turn green."

Zoe hit her forehead with the palm of her hand. "I'm really sorry, Cygar, I shouldn't have done that in front of you. I bet it looked weird or different, perhaps even uncomfortable, but I can explain, in time. If you're sticking around with Jimmy maybe we can all hang out as friends and get to know each other better," Zoe's mouth was running a mile a second, her hands were twitching and clasping together like fishes out of water.

Once again I started chuckling. "Zoe, relax. Cygar here is like us," I held out my palm and formed a ball of fire in my hand.

Cygar held up his hands and created a snowball in one and then a ball of ice in the other.

"Go ahead, Cygar, throw the snowball at me," I said.

"You sure?"

"Yeah of course."

Cygar shot the snowball but I hurled my fireball at it like a professional baseball pitcher. They smashed into each other then disappeared in mid air on the front porch. Zoe gasped and brought her hands to her face.

"Is this like your brother or something?" Zoe asked.

We both gazed at each other with blank expressions, and Cygar shook his head.